usa vs japan

What a cool thing to do. Have challenges inbetween countries.
Looking forward to hear about this.

Sebastian

cebaztian said:

What a cool thing to do. Have challenges inbetween countries.
Looking forward to hear about this.

Sebastian

Click to expand...

Thanks for looking further forward than you might have expected. I just found this thread and want to share one of my greatest experiences ever.

I will refrain from devulging any results. I wish to let others responsible for putting this whole event together do those honors at the appropriate time. However, I can share some of my associated expereiences and impressions.

The Japanese have found the way to televise freediving on national television to the mass market. Asahi Television put together this competition between the USA and Japan. This was a nationally televised event in Japan, taped for broadcast as half of two hour special. The show is called "Q-sama" and they told us it was the number one show in Japan. It focuses on different and unusual sports. It has sensational aspects, overblown bravado, and hype- a lot like big time wrestling. In any event, Asahi TV paid for whole event- our airfare, our hotel, our meals, transportation, and a ¥200,000 stipend!

The way that Asahi TV made freediving work for national TV was to focus on the most telegenic discipline of freediving- dynamics. More specifically, this competition was exclusively dynamics without fins. I speculate that DNF has the most popular appeal in Japan and is best suited for television because the audience can relate better to underwater swimmers without fancy, technical equipment. Next to statics, DNF is apnea at its most basic but at the same time is more entertaining that statics. Also, most everyone who learns to swim has tried swimming a length at one time or another in their life. Regardless, DNF made a big splash with high ratings on Q-sama earlier when the show focused on a Japanese only competition about a year ago.

For the competition between Japan and the USA, each team had five members. The teams went head to head with one Japanese dynamicist going against one USA dynamicist at a time. The first team to have three out of five individual victories won. This one on one approach also made it simple to follow.

My initial reaction to the structure of the competition was "why not total up everyone's distance for the winner?" Not. In retrospect, it would have turned out the same. And in the end, the one-on-one approach made for better television. If more international competitions of this nature develop, remember, whoever decides which competitor goes against which competitor yields a lot of control over the final outcome. In this competition, I believe the Japanese coach decided who went against who. He appeared to match competitors according to their standing and past performances- which was really fair. Our top guy went against their top guy. Their lady went against our lady and so on.

For a DNF-only guy like me, this was perfect.

The competition followed AIDA international rules and procedures with certified AIDA judges- one USA judge and one Japan judge. Despite the showtime atmosphere, the competition itself was genuine. Thanks go to Grant Graves for being so steadfast to judging and the rules.

However, this was no ordinary competition- it was showbiz. There were cameras everywhere. Cameras on rails along poolside. Underwater cameramen being pulled by ropes. Cameras on the balcony. Roaming cameras. Monitors, and wires, wires, wires. We were asked to exagerate everything, act mean and tough, pose, heckle, but above all - to have fun. And did we have fun. Oh yeah, we had fun.

One difference from an ordinary competition was the time between performances. In most of my experience, competitors go about eight minutes apart. So, ten competitors would take eighty minutes. Due to television production requirements, we went 25 minutes apart and the competition took nearly five hours! (I went next to last.)

Another thing that helps make dynamics in Japan popular is that some of their team members are nationally known celebrities. Their lady dynamicist is an popular actress. Their team captain is a nationally reknown comedian named Doncho. (He turned out to be my opponent and a worthy one at that.) The publicity works both ways too. The celebrities get national airtime and the sport of freediving gets a boost as well.

I hope this provides a general background of the whole scene in which we found ourselves. I never ever imagined that I would ever do something like this- get paid for doing something that I love in a wonderfilled country like Japan. I had the dinner of a lifetime eating Kobe beef at a Shabu-shabu restaurant. Unbelieveable. Japan is simply a beautiful country with beautiful people. We all hope that this will lead to more events of this nature. When we left, there was talk of an expanded international meet with several countries. We would certainly like to welcome the Japanese to the United States some day.

With Worlds happening now in Egypt, this event will take second stage. However, when the time is right, the results will be released by the right person. More than the results, however, the televised drama of the competition is what's fun to watch. Some fun, and funny, things happened in this made-for-television event. I can't wait for the DVD to arrive.

Peace,
Glen

Sounds like a lot of fun! Apnea finding it's way to commercial television, exciting!